Fantasy Basketball Mid-Week Streamers: Week 16

Thunder Dan Palyo looks at some mid-week waiver wire options for fantasy basketball leagues. These players may be free agents to target on waivers in Week 16.

It's a busier-than-usual Thursday this week as we get a surprising 7 games on the schedule and then a pretty balanced finish to the week with 8 games tomorrow, 9 games on Saturday, and 6 games on Sunday.

Most leagues limit how many players you can stream each week in daily leagues. If your league only allows three moves per week, you need to be very efficient with your moves and grab players who will help you maximize your games played and help you win an extra category or two of counting stats.

The goal of this article each Thursday morning will be to help you plan out your roster moves for the remainder of the week. By this point of the week, you should start to get an idea of what categories you may need help with and where your weekly opponent is the strongest and weakest (in H2H formats). If you're playing roto, you don't have to gameplan quite as much, but you'll still want to maximize the stats your team can accumulate during the week. All the rostered percentages used in this article are from Yahoo.

Weekly Schedule: Thursday to Sunday

Teams that play only one game (AVOID): Boston, Brooklyn, San Antonio, Utah, OKC

Teams that play three games (TARGET): Charlotte, Denver, Indiana, New Orleans, NY Knicks

Shallow League Streaming Options

Patrick Williams - PF (45%)

Williams has been a guy who has been fairly inconsistent this year, but he's been playing some of his best basketball of the season over the last few weeks. The Bulls have a great matchup with the Hornets tonight and I think we could see a big outing from P-Will.

Daniel Gafford - C (42%)

Gafford was dropped by a lot of people when he got hurt, but he's set to return already and should be rostered in standard leagues - go get him.

Jalen McDaniels - SF/PF (36%)

McDaniels has moved back to the bench for Charlotte, but I don't think that means you can't still use him. He's still going to lead the reserves in minutes and it might be a boost to his usage as it's hard to get shots when he's out there with Ball, Hayward, and Rozier. The Hornets play three times to finish the week and are a team we want to target.

Larry Nance Jr. - PF/C (30%)

I just grabbed Nance this morning in my most competitive league for the 3-game finish to the week that the Pelicans have. He comes off the bench, but I expect him to play anywhere from 24-30 minutes in these games as the Pelicans love what he brings defensively.

Chris Boucher - PF/C (25%)

Boucher has finally seen consistent playing time with Anunoby hurt, and it's paid off as he's been a solid source of points and boards with some threes and blocks mixed in.

Jalen Suggs - PG/SG (23%)

Suggs is starting to have his minutes ramped up from the teens into the low 20s and played his most (26) since returning from injury last night. He's widely available and while the timeshare in Orlando is annoying, you have to consider Suggs as he's one of the few guys on the wire who can give you 4-5 assists a night even in limited playing time.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Eric Gordon - SG/SF (17%)

Gordon has had a resurgence of late with both Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr. out of the lineup. He's been the leading scorer for Houston in two straight games, averaging 24.5 points across those contests. It's nothing sexy, but the points, threes, and a modest bump in assists are worth the short-term add.

Drew Eubanks - PF/C (13%)

Eubanks should be a popular add in the wake of Nurkic's injury so grab him while you can. Nurk's calf keeps bothering him and Portland might just shut him down for a week or two to get him right. Drew had a double-double last night in only 24 minutes and is a solid fantasy producer when given the minutes. He's averaged 8 points, 7 boards, and 1.3 blocks across six starts this year.

Naz Reid - C (12%)

We had another surprise Naz blowup game last night as he went for 24 points and 13 boards in a spot start for Rudy Gobert. I have no idea if Gobert's injury is going to linger, but Reid is certainly worth a speculative add as the Wolves get Orlando tomorrow and then have Denver on Sunday.

Ricky Rubio - PG (5%)

Rubio has been working his way back slowly from a season-ending injury last year but has been productive in a limited role off the bench. The Cavs play tonight and then have two days to rest until Sunday's game against Indiana, so Rubio isn't likely to be rested and you'd be hard-pressed to find another guy with 5-6 assist upside per game on the wire in addition to his solid rebounding and steals.

Gary Harris - SG/SF (3%)

I already mentioned Jalen Suggs for Orlando, but Gary Harris has seen a lot of court time for Orlando, too, and is still a relatively young player who can contribute in threes, points, and steals in this 25-28 minute role that he currently has for the Magic.

More Fantasy Basketball Analysis